Ret. Army Military Intell. and Fmr. Fox Analyst thinks Trump is Putin's Agent

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Ret. Army Military Intell. and Fmr. Fox Analyst thinks Trump is Putin's Agent

President Donald Trump is the "perfect target" for Russian intelligence. That's what the retired US Army Lt. Col. Ralph Peters asserted during a CNN interview on Wednesday night.
Peters said Trump's acquiescence to Russia and its leader, Vladimir Putin, suggested to him that Putin had "some sort of grip on Trump."
The former Fox News military analyst said the Steele dossier, a collection of memos and opposition research on Trump compiled by a former British intelligence agent, "rang true" to him because, as he put it, Trump "has no self-control, a sense of sexual entitlement, and intermittent financial crises."
"That's made-to-order for seduction by Russian intelligence," Peters said.

A retired US Army lieutenant colonel and military analyst on Wednesday night speculated that President Donald Trump may be on the tip of the spear with Russian intelligence.

Ralph Peters suggested during a CNN interview that Russian President Vladimir Putin had "some kind of grip on Trump," pointing to the US president's documented affinity toward Putin and his hesitation to speak critically of the Kremlin.

Peters, who trained in Russian studies and the Russian language and who has experience with Russian intelligence officers, said Trump's public behavior showed signs of someone who may be compromised by one of the US's most formidable enemies.

The former Fox News military analyst also mentioned the Steele dossier, a collection of memos and opposition research on Trump compiled by a former British intelligence agent. Peters said the dossier's claims, some of which have been verified and some of which have not, "rang true" to him, because, as he put it, Trump "has no self-control, a sense of sexual entitlement, and intermittent financial crises."

"That's made-to-order for seduction by Russian intelligence," Peters said, later adding that he hoped such conjecture turned out to be false.

Trump and his campaign are at the center of a far-reaching federal investigation of Russian meddling in the 2016 US presidential election. Robert Mueller, the special counsel who is leading that investigation, is also looking into whether any members of the Trump campaign colluded with Russia and whether Trump obstructed justice in connection with the investigation.

Publicly, Trump has often shied away from criticizing Putin — instead praising him and his leadership before and after the 2016 election while lamenting that such praise is frowned upon in the US. He has also slow-walked sanctions on Russia that other US officials have sought.

Putin has been equally reverent toward Trump, previously accusing US lawmakers of trying to stand between them.

I can only laugh at the irony... analyst quits Fox News for promoting conspiracies... then heads over to CNN to promote his view of the conspiracies and create more conspiracies over the former conspiracies...

All this seems like converting common bullshit into High Efficiency Concentrated bullshit...

I can only laugh at the irony... analyst quits Fox News for promoting conspiracies... then heads over to CNN to promote his view of the conspiracies and create more conspiracies over the former conspiracies...

All this seems like converting common bullshit into High Efficiency Concentrated bullshit...

There's a difference, he has at least anecdotal evidence. Trump just yesterday called for Russia to be reintegrated into the G8. I know he's "Russia's worst nightmare". But he seems to be a dream at assisting their foreign policies...

I can only laugh at the irony... analyst quits Fox News for promoting conspiracies... then heads over to CNN to promote his view of the conspiracies and create more conspiracies over the former conspiracies...

All this seems like converting common bullshit into High Efficiency Concentrated bullshit...

Funny. Those who just can't accept Trump won the election and is president sell this Russian collusion story when Mueller has knocked himself out trying to find evidence of it and can't find a thing. Also nobody is taking about the Chinese infiltration of our government and institutions. China is aggressive in the South China sea. Nobody talks about that or says Trump is colluding with Xi Jinping when he says something nice about him. Also nobody is taking about our domestic corruption like Pakistani IT technicians having access to the electronic devices and computers the US Congress use. Like I said. Russia and Putin are being used as a red herring to take the attention off of other things. Also I wouldn't consider Fox or CNN real news sources. They are propaganda channels. Fox leaning right and CNN running left. It's all noise. The only people who have an inkling of what's really going on are intelligence officers who don't have a political axe to grind or propaganda to pitch. Those people aren't going to go on television and bitch. You don't know who they are and they want to keep it that way.

If you want to get rid of Trump here's my suggestion. Run someone in the next election that can beat him. If the Democrats put as much effort into actually coming up with a real strategy and ran someone middle America instead of just the leftist fringe could tolerate. Maybe they would have a shot. That being said the news media and the Democratic Party will just make a lot of noise while Trump wins a second term. If you want to make more noise fine. Nobody is listening except those in the same echo chamber. It's not about Trump. It's about a non-politician independent that nobody has bought wining the highest office in the land. Thats what it's about and let's say it was someone else besides Trump. They would be getting the same shit. Maybe the Democrats should worry more about the corruption in their own party. You know the corruption who stole the nomination from a guy named Bernie Sanders? There is no democracy in the Democratic Party. If some other independent becomes popular they will throw that person under the bus too and give you some bought and owned shill who is owned by the corporations and banks.

Funny. Those who just can't accept Trump won the election and is president sell this Russian collusion story when Mueller has knocked himself out trying to find evidence of it and can't find a thing.

Can't find a thing? He just indicted another Russian operative and is getting ready to throw Manafart to his new cellmate and boyfriend. Don't let facts stop a nitrous rant now!!..

Also nobody is taking about the Chinese infiltration of our government and institutions. China is aggressive in the South China sea. Nobody talks about that or says Trump is colluding with Xi Jinping when he says something nice about him. Also nobody is taking about our domestic corruption like Pakistani IT technicians having access to the electronic devices and computers the US Congress use.

Just rambling nonsense. So we should be tough on Imperial Japan but easy on the Nazis? I'm not aware of any large scale "infiltration" nor election meddling by them. But I think I read every other day about the South China sea and Chinese belligerence.

But how about Trump giving a Chinese telecom a pass so Ivanka could sell her crap in China? Do you mention that?

As for Paki IT IDK, maybe we need more 'Mericans but there is a crisis in gov't IT in general with convicted murderers and pedophiles being given preliminary security clearances and having Top Secret access...

Like I said. Russia and Putin are being used as a red herring to take the attention off of other things. Also I wouldn't consider Fox or CNN real news sources.

Except you sound just like Sean Hannity (I presume). Red-herring? Every intelligence agency has indicated a serious problem with Russian election meddling and the use of fake social media accounts and "fake neewwwss" although I believe Comey's November surprise was far more damning for Clinton than Russian intell. But just go back to sleep old man...

They are propaganda channels. Fox leaning right and CNN running left. It's all noise. The only people who have an inkling of what's really going on are intelligence officers who don't have a political axe to grind or propaganda to pitch. Those people aren't going to go on television and bitch. You don't know who they are and they want to keep it that way.

There are fundamental differences in which CNN and Fox approach news stories. CNN obsesses but they do approach from a factual basis and you can easily verify this statistically, or just by paying attention to things like the infamous "Eagles praying" photo being used to portray them as "kneeling" by Faux "news"...

If you want to get rid of Trump here's my suggestion.

But who's "you". Which strawman? There are many Democrats that are very happy to leave Trump where he is to galvanize long term support for their party with youth and increasingly vocal minorities.

Is Mueller a "Democrat?" Is every one who thinks Trump is a stupid and corrupt douche a "Democrat?"..

Run someone in the next election that can beat him. If the Democrats put as much effort into actually coming up with a real strategy and ran someone middle America instead of just the leftist fringe could tolerate. Maybe they would have a shot. That being said the news media and the Democratic Party will just make a lot of noise while Trump wins a second term. If you want to make more noise fine. Nobody is listening except those in the same echo chamber. It's not about Trump. It's about a non-politician independent that nobody has bought wining the highest office in the land. Thats what it's about and let's say it was someone else besides Trump. They would be getting the same shit. Maybe the Democrats should worry more about the corruption in their own party. You know the corruption who stole the nomination from a guy named Bernie Sanders? There is no democracy in the Democratic Party. If some other independent becomes popular they will throw that person under the bus too and give you some bought and owned shill who is owned by the corporations and banks.

Hillary Clinton was hardly a 'leftist" candidate, she was firmly in the middle if not actually center-right. And can you contradict yourself more? She won the popular vote convincingly and lost only by the electoral college. That last bastion of old white people...

It still doesn't lessen the odd sense of weirdness I feel with how Trump has approached Russia and Putin.

While I couldn't say with any degree of certainty Trump has somehow (maybe via past business transactions - and let's not pretend for a moment Trump and his family haven't been doing business with various Russian entities, much as we won't pretend that Trump's family and campaign associates weren't in contact with various Russian entities throughout the 2016 campaign and in the post-election/pre-inauguration period) been compromised by Putin/Russian intelligence and is being blackmailed to do Putin's bidding, just my inability to say that doesn't lessen my puzzlement over Trump's attitude and approach to Putin. Puzzlement in wondering if Putin doesn't have something he is hanging over Trump, then why does Trump have the benign attitude toward Putin that he does?

Is it just that Trump respects "strongmen" dictators more than democratically elected heads of state? Is it envy over the manner in which Putin rules his nation, in that this is how Trump would like to rule this nation? Does Trump admire dictatorships more than - for all their faults - democracies?

I mean, why exactly did members of Trump's family and so many campaign associates feel the need to "fail to disclose" meetings they had with so many Russian nationals? Not even talking about the substance of the meetings, but lying about the meetings having even taken place?

Perhaps all of that doesn't strike others as something out of the norm, but all of it strikes me as peculiar, to say the least.

It's about a non-politician independent that nobody has bought wining the highest office in the land.

You lost me at this - his whole business since the banks stopped lending to him years ago has been selling himself.

The Russians probably didn't win the election for him, Hilary and Comey did that, but the guy is dodgy as fuck. You are always obsessed with money and this is another case of just following it. How much of the Trump business is tied up in laundering Russian oligarch money?

I do agree there is some massive stupidity in the media worrying about the wrong things, how a bill removing so many controls on the banks just 10 years after the last disaster got through while people worry about the tweets of a mentally unstable comic is ludicrous.

I also find the whole Russia situation puzzling... Clearly we (USA) have to deal with them on a global basis and in many differing arenas where we oppose each other and some where we are allied toward some common goal. None of this crap aligns neatly into one angle or diplomatic approach. It all seemed much simpler when they were just an enemy...

What clouds things is Trumps approach to deal making... he likes to personally align with other power brokers to leverage negotiation elements. Historically US diplomatic relations placed the personal connections secondary or even lower below the policy positions. Trump completely flips that engagement model and it makes the diplomatic folks very nervous and also seems somewhat confusing to the general public because that's not what we are conditioned to expect.

Were Trumps comments on bringing Russia back into the G7/8 deal due to Trump admiring Russia or was it just a negotiation tactic to rattle the other nations because the US was being portrayed as the bad guy at this years conference due to tariff threats..?

In some cases, we're seeing surprising results from this nontraditional approach. For the current big items in play it will be very interesting to see where things play out. Especially the North Korea situation and the trade war brewing. While many are distracted by Russian bullshit... what's playing out with China..?

You lost me at this - his whole business since the banks stopped lending to him years ago has been selling himself.

The Russians probably didn't win the election for him, Hilary and Comey did that, but the guy is dodgy as fuck. You are always obsessed with money and this is another case of just following it. How much of the Trump business is tied up in laundering Russian oligarch money?

I do agree there is some massive stupidity in the media worrying about the wrong things, how a bill removing so many controls on the banks just 10 years after the last disaster got through while people worry about the tweets of a mentally unstable comic is ludicrous.

Well, televised media here in the US - traditional big 3 networks or cable - is just a joke. These outlets will chase any shiny object thrown at them. The politically-oriented panel shows, and I'm talking EVERY network (not just Fox)...it's all just stimulus/response, stimulus/response. And I get that these news networks are ratings-oriented vs. content-oriented, so they have to play up the drama and have guests and hosts yelling and indulging in hyperbole to get eyeballs watching. Even when you do get a thoughtful guest on one of these shows who isn't acting like a drama queen, they are drowned out in the cacophony.

There still are some useful periodicals that, probably by being published weekly or monthly, have the time to research various stories and aren't diverted by, say, whatever ridiculous Trump lie Sarah Sanders tried to put pants on in a press conference. These outlets are looking at the broader implications rather than concentrating on Rudy Giuliani's latest wide-eyed babble.

I also find the whole Russia situation puzzling... Clearly we (USA) have to deal with them on a global basis and in many differing arenas where we oppose each other and some where we are allied toward some common goal. None of this crap aligns neatly into one angle or diplomatic approach. It all seemed much simpler when they were just an enemy...

What clouds things is Trumps approach to deal making... he likes to personally align with other power brokers to leverage negotiation elements. Historically US diplomatic relations placed the personal connections secondary or even lower below the policy positions. Trump completely flips that engagement model and it makes the diplomatic folks very nervous and also seems somewhat confusing to the general public because that's not what we are conditioned to expect.

Were Trumps comments on bringing Russia back into the G7/8 deal due to Trump admiring Russia or was it just a negotiation tactic to rattle the other nations because the US was being portrayed as the bad guy at this years conference due to tariff threats..?

In some cases, we're seeing surprising results from this nontraditional approach. For the current big items in play it will be very interesting to see where things play out. Especially the North Korea situation and the trade war brewing. While many are distracted by Russian bullshit... what's playing out with China..?

Some reasonable approach toward engaging with Putin and Russia is certainly preferable to going back to a less communicative Cold War method, to be sure.

However, we - America - shouldn't lose sight of who Putin is and what Putin would like to see happen to democracies that utilize the capitalist system. What Putin would like to see happen to such societies certainly isn't anything that would benefit them. He would like to see them disrupted, fractionalized and have a lack of unification re: sense of common purposes and goals. We need to keep all of that in mind when dealing with him. He isn't Gorbachev. Thus, we shouldn't just cater to his whims without seeking anything in return. That's not useful deal making.

I wouldn't necessarily mind Trump, or any other president, making direct deals with other leaders in principle. My hesitation with Trump doing so has less to do with him bypassing the traditional diplomatic/bureaucratic process than it does with my concerns over Trump's abilities and reputation as a deal maker among those who have actually looked at the facts surrounding his business beyond the self-generated hype of his The Art Of The Deal Book, his self-manufactured image which often didn't coincide with reality when the hard bottom line numbers were calculated at the end of the day, and those who are able to distinguish the difference between being a successful businessmen in the mold of a company that is publicly traded and answerable to stockholders vs. a person who is the self-appointed head of a private company where the primary concern is the promoting and selling a brand.

Given that reputation, would you as, say, Iran, actually trust anything Donald Trump said in terms of brokering a new nuclear deal re: Trump's word being worth anything?

It all comes down to credibility: Trump traded his in a LONG time ago.

Most ironic thing about that? That's Abby Huntsman, daughter of Jon Huntsman, who is currently employed as Cheeto's ambassador to Russia.

You might remember Jon Huntsman as the "Republican who was far too rational for his party" in the 2012 Presidential primaries. Apparently he lost some of that rationality in the years since, or he wouldn't be working for the Orange Imbecile.

Most ironic thing about that? That's Abby Huntsman, daughter of Jon Huntsman, who is currently employed as Cheeto's ambassador to Russia.

You might remember Jon Huntsman as the "Republican who was far too rational for his party" in the 2012 Presidential primaries. Apparently he lost some of that rationality in the years since, or he wouldn't be working for the Orange Imbecile.

Part of my thinking is along the lines of Trump should have the same access to as wide a variety people with experience in government as any other president would.

As to Huntsman working for Trump now when [Huntsman] was seen as too conventional a candidate himself in 2012, I can't recall Huntsman saying anything specifically about Trump one way or the other in the 2016 campaign. I mean, he may well have, but I haven't even so much as seen Huntsman on tv since 2012. So, for me Huntsman working/shilling for Trump doesn't have QUITE the same hypocritical ring that it does for someone like Romney or Cruz.

I mean, who cares who the official US Ambassador to Russia is, anyway? It's not as if Trump has a lack of available means to contact Putin and his cronies outside of the normal State Department channels.

Trump hasn't even appointed ambassadors to a bunch of countries including some pretty important ones like Mexico, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Australia and the ones he has are often just ridiculous just look up the fuckwit he has in Germany.

Trump's main concern is keeping his approval rating up and he's doing that by focusing on growing the economy. Filling US embassies with ambassadors is apparently low down on the priority list. Really how important are these positions? Past presidents have made their political enemies ambassadors just to get them out on Washington. I know people who have worked in intelligence view our embassies and their staff as jokes. Having had to deal with the US embassy in Hong Kong I can confirm this.

You lost me at this - his whole business since the banks stopped lending to him years ago has been selling himself.

The Russians probably didn't win the election for him, Hilary and Comey did that, but the guy is dodgy as fuck. You are always obsessed with money and this is another case of just following it. How much of the Trump business is tied up in laundering Russian oligarch money?

I do agree there is some massive stupidity in the media worrying about the wrong things, how a bill removing so many controls on the banks just 10 years after the last disaster got through while people worry about the tweets of a mentally unstable comic is ludicrous.

Try doing anything in the world without money. It's pretty important everywhere. Yeah I spend most my time dealing with money as do most people on the planet. The car payment needs to be paid. The rent needs to be paid. The mortgage needs to be paid. The grocery store wants money for food. The waiter at the restaurant wants a tip. If money wasn't so important then I guess just stop paying wages, salaries, and welfare payments. Yeah money is so unimportant that people would riot if you cut it off.

Trump is a political outsider. He had no political career. Who launders oligarch money is countries like Switzerland. The Trump Organization is small potatoes. Russian oligarchs might buy an apartment from Trump. Trump like most real estate people make their money by selling leases. Trump also sells his name. Some of the buildings with his name on them aren't even owned by him. They pay Trump for the franchise. He sells his name and he sold his way into the White House with very little money compared to what Hillary spent. Hillary was the sure bet and this guy from Queens with bad hair wins. It made the establishment shit their pants. Who's going to cover our ass? Our criminal activity might be found out. We might go to jail!

Well, televised media here in the US - traditional big 3 networks or cable - is just a joke. These outlets will chase any shiny object thrown at them. The politically-oriented panel shows, and I'm talking EVERY network (not just Fox)...it's all just stimulus/response, stimulus/response. And I get that these news networks are ratings-oriented vs. content-oriented, so they have to play up the drama and have guests and hosts yelling and indulging in hyperbole to get eyeballs watching. Even when you do get a thoughtful guest on one of these shows who isn't acting like a drama queen, they are drowned out in the cacophony.

There still are some useful periodicals that, probably by being published weekly or monthly, have the time to research various stories and aren't diverted by, say, whatever ridiculous Trump lie Sarah Sanders tried to put pants on in a press conference. These outlets are looking at the broader implications rather than concentrating on Rudy Giuliani's latest wide-eyed babble.

Nothing new. Just read Miles Copeland's book The Game Player. He was Stewart Copeland's (Police drummer) father and a founder of the CIA. He said most of what is in the public media is bullshit. Most people have no clue how the real world works. In fact, intelligence agencies will have their people work in a foreign news agency and run stories to influence the people back home. All sorts of physiological games are played. This is nothing new. We never had real news and today it's split into left wing and right wing propaganda. We basically have partisan echo chambers and less and less people are paying attention to it. People are just burnt out on politics and all the noise so they just shut it out.

I also find the whole Russia situation puzzling... Clearly we (USA) have to deal with them on a global basis and in many differing arenas where we oppose each other and some where we are allied toward some common goal. None of this crap aligns neatly into one angle or diplomatic approach. It all seemed much simpler when they were just an enemy...

What clouds things is Trumps approach to deal making... he likes to personally align with other power brokers to leverage negotiation elements. Historically US diplomatic relations placed the personal connections secondary or even lower below the policy positions. Trump completely flips that engagement model and it makes the diplomatic folks very nervous and also seems somewhat confusing to the general public because that's not what we are conditioned to expect.

Were Trumps comments on bringing Russia back into the G7/8 deal due to Trump admiring Russia or was it just a negotiation tactic to rattle the other nations because the US was being portrayed as the bad guy at this years conference due to tariff threats..?

In some cases, we're seeing surprising results from this nontraditional approach. For the current big items in play it will be very interesting to see where things play out. Especially the North Korea situation and the trade war brewing. While many are distracted by Russian bullshit... what's playing out with China..?

We have always had an interesting relationship with Russia. Even during the cold war a lot went on behind the scenes. To understand Trump is you have to read his book The Art of the Deal. He explains his negotiation style in that book. He see's the traditional way of doing things in politics as a failure so he's doing it his way. I always thought the swamp needed to be stirred up. If anything Trump is doing that and letting us all see the sludge and smell the stink. Even if he's a bit stinky himself. After the stiring the system needs an enema. If you think it's messy now, wait until the bowels of Washington let go.

Nothing new. Just read Miles Copeland's book The Game Player. He was Stewart Copeland's (Police drummer) father and a founder of the CIA. He said most of what is in the public media is bullshit. Most people have no clue how the real world works. In fact, intelligence agencies will have their people work in a foreign news agency and run stories to influence the people back home. All sorts of physiological games are played. This is nothing new. We never had real news and today it's split into left wing and right wing propaganda. We basically have partisan echo chambers and less and less people are paying attention to it. People are just burnt out on politics and all the noise so they just shut it out.

The BCE/CIA infiltration into the media is often implied. but in some cases, it's literally in plain sight.....

Prescott Bush was involved in the early days of the CBS network (back when it was radio.... which was also about the same time he was funding old Uncle Adolf). ABC's parent company before Disney was Capitol Cities Communications, a CIA front group owned by Poppy Bush's friend Bill Casey. Disney themselves made propaganda cartoons during World War II (the one with Donald Duck vs the Nazis is actually kind of funny) And of course there's the whole scenario where Clear Channel radio was the by-product of Chimpy's brief "ownership" of the Texas Rangers. Though it's currently owned by Willard Mittens Romney's Bain Capital - which itself is a frequent business partner with the BCE/CIA affiliated Carlyle Group. And AOL has long been rumored to be a CIA front company, and acquired CNN through a takeover of Time Warner

Miles Copeland was old school BCE/CIA so he was probably well aware of most of these above. And Copeland's kids had enough humor about their dad's spy career to name their first company "Illegal Records", which issued the first Police single, before the label turned into IRS, conveniently satirizing another government entity rather than the one that employed their father.

Fortunately, (and unlike the BCE) Copeland's kids didn't follow him into the "Company" business in Langley and chose music instead. On the other hand, if Stewart had been in the CIA, maybe he would have put out a hit on Sting once his solo albums became intolerable?

Yup. Entertainment is a powerful force. Rock and Roll was used to soften up the Soviet Union. The Police went to places like Egypt and India to sell western capitalism over communism which the KGB was pushing in those countries. Sting was a bit riffed when he found out they were being operationalized by the CIA and it was never discussed with him. Yngwie Malmsteen was asked by his father to do some shows in the Soviet Union. He later found out his father worked in intelligence. As far as the Copelands go both parents worked in intelligence. The father was OSS and CIA and the mom was British intelligence. Miles Copeland Sr. once said HW Bush was a fabulous administrator. Maybe he was but he also was one hell of a crook.

Trump was a talented cocky jock growing up. He was good enough to play professional baseball but turned that down because it didn't pay well enough. His dad sent him to military school because his cockiness made him a discipline problem. That being said the guy did manage to graduate from the Wharton School of Finance which is the best financial school in the US. Better than Harvard if you want to study finance. To Trump the world is deals. What real estate people really sell is leases. Sure the property plays a part but what you really are developing and selling is leases. To build a lease and make the most profit requires some good negotiating skills. To sell it requires some salesmanship. To get the most return requires cutting costs in a way that doesn't ruin the deal. That's Trump's world. He's brought it to Washington. You can see it in the current negotiations with North Korea. Right out of Art of the Deal. Trump's strategy is to keep his approval rating up to win a second term by keeping consumer confidence and the economy up. He wanted tax cuts his first year. North Korea was his current focus. Can Trump really grow the economy. Many say no.

...That's Trump's world. He's brought it to Washington. You can see it in the current negotiations with North Korea....

You mean giving up everything with nothing concrete in return? He's an idiot that reads on a sixth grade level and has no attention span. He's a "salesman" in the vein of a lying used car salesman. You can swallow his bullshit hook line and sinker, but most think he's a lazy buffoon riding what was already a strong economy....

You mean giving up everything with nothing concrete in return? He's an idiot that reads on a sixth grade level and has no attention span. He's a "salesman" in the vein of a lying used car salesman. You can swallow his bullshit hook line and sinker, but most think he's a lazy buffoon riding what was already a strong economy....

I think you have to have more than a 6th grade education to get into the Wharton School of Finance.

Yeah, um, there's probably a lot of bullshit there too:

During Trump’s rise to the top of the real estate development world, various news publications exaggerated his academic achievements at Wharton, according to a 2011 Salon magazine article.

Reports of Trump’s grades at Wharton vary. The New York Times reported in 1973 and 1976 that he graduated first in his class. But in a 1985 biography of Trump, Jerome Tuccille wrote that he was not an honor student and “spent a lot of time on outside business activities.”

Another biographer, Gwenda Blair, wrote in 2001 that Trump was admitted to Wharton on a special favor from a “friendly” admissions officer. The officer had known Trump’s older brother, Freddy.

Trump’s classmates doubt that the real estate mogul was an academic powerhouse.

“He was not in any kind of leadership. I certainly doubt he was the smartest guy in the class,” said Steve Perelman, a 1968 Wharton classmate and a former Daily Pennsylvanian news editor.

Some classmates speculated that Trump skipped class, others that he commuted to New York on weekends.

“Four years — including lots of required classes — is a long time never to hear of a classmate, especially with such a distinctive name,” wrote 1968 Wharton graduate Larry Krohn, another one of Trump’s classmates, in an email.